From Anansi, the spider of West African folklore, to Loki, the shape-shifter of Norse mythology, tricksters are some of the most entertaining characters in stories all over the world. Neither the strongest, the fleetest, nor the best looking, the tricksters triumph through their brains, not their brawn. One of the world’s oldest and best known is Odysseus, whose quick thinking gets him out of one predicament after another in The Odyssey, a circa eighth-century B.C. epic attributed to the Greek poet Homer.
Odysseus first appears in another work attributed to Homer, The Iliad, which tells the story of a feud between Achilles and Agamemnon during the 10-year war between the Greeks and Trojans. The king of Ithaca, Odysseus fights for the Greeks. The Odyssey recounts his return home to his kingdom, wife Penelope, and son Telemachus. The voyage should have taken days, but instead it stretches across a decade because Odysseus has drawn the ire of Poseidon, god of the sea. Time after time, the enraged god thwarts Odysseus’ progress, yet the wily trickster manages to survive again and again.
(How do we know what ancient Greek warriors wore for battle? It's in The Iliad.)
Although it was written down centuries later, The Odyssey is set in Mycenaean Greece during the middle of the Bronze Age, between 1600 and 1200 B.C. Historians believe that The Odyssey incorporates earlier oral traditions from that period while reflecting the cultural norms of Homer’s era. There are still some insights to be gleaned about life during the Mycenaean period or just after through Odysseus’ travels, making it not only a thrilling trickster tale but also an important historical snapshot.
Wandering and waiting
The Odyssey begins years after the fall of Troy. On the island of Ithaca, Penelope and Telemachus wait for Odysseus’ return. The patient Penelope is besieged by suitors, who presume Odysseus is dead and are hoping to marry her and rule Ithaca. Penelope has promised that she will choose a new husband when she has finished weaving a funeral shroud for Odysseus’ father, Laertes.
To buy time, at night she has been secretly unraveling the work she had done that day, all the while holding out hope for Odysseus’ return. Telemachus, encouraged by the goddess Athena, has begun searching for his father, much to the displeasure of the suitors.
(Revealing the hidden lives of ancient Greek women.)
Meanwhile, Odysseus has spent seven years waylaid on a nymph’s island. The immortal Calypso is in love with him and will not let him go, but Odysseus continues to long for home. The gods intercede and command her to release him. He sets out on a raft and reaches the island of the Phaeacians, to whom he reveals his true identity and tells the story of his 10-year voyage since the end of the Trojan War.
The audience is enthralled by Odysseus, whose troubles begin when his men are trapped by the Cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus craftily gets the monster drunk and blinds him when he passes out. Odysseus taunts the enraged Polyphemus and tells him his name. The Cyclops then prays to his father, the god Poseidon, to curse the king and force him to wander for 10 years.
Odysseus escapes numerous perils, like the cannibalistic Laestrygonians and the sorceress Circe, who turns his men into swine. He takes a trip to the underworld, withstands the deadly sirens’ song, and navigates the treacherous waters between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Along the way, his fleet wrecks, and his men are lost.
(Greece’s river to the ‘underworld’ now lures adventure travelers.)
Moved by his story, the Phaeacians deliver Odysseus to Ithaca, where he:
after so long a wait and so much pain, was filled with happiness at last. In joy he kissed the fertile earth of his own country, then lifted high his arms and prayed...
The goddess Athena disguises Odysseus as an old beggar so he can enter the palace undetected. The ruse fools almost everyone, except for Odysseus’ loyal dog, Argos, who has been waiting for his master’s return:
Twenty years had passed since Argos saw Odysseus, and now he saw him for the final time—then suddenly, black death took hold of him.
The king reveals himself to his son, and the two hatch a plan for revenge. Odysseus will employ another trick and ask Penelope to offer her hand in marriage to the man who can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through 12 ax heads. After winning the contest, Odysseus throws off his disguise and rains arrows on the suitors until he has killed them all. Penelope reunites with her husband, and peace is restored to Ithaca.
Myth and history
Historians have found no hard evidence of an ancient Greek king named Odysseus. While the man may not have existed, scholars believe the Mycenaean kingdom of Ithaca certainly did. Its precise location is unknown, but many think Odysseus’ Ithaca was located on the Ionian island of Kefalonia on Paliki Peninsula, which was a small island in the Bronze Age.
(How archaeologists found the lost city of Troy.)
The Homeric writer’s choice of words offers glimpses into Mycenaean civilization andits influence on later culture. For example, two different words for king are used: Odysseus is described variously as the anax and the basileus of Ithaca. The word “anax” is typical of the Mycenaean period, while “basileus” dates to alater period.
The wealth of the Mycenaean kings was primarily based on the large-scale farming of pigs, goats, sheep, and cows. Both the Mycenaean texts and The Odyssey speak of the king owning large numbers of livestock.
The central role of animal husbandry is highlighted through three characters in The Odyssey: Eumaeus (a swine-herd), Melanthius (a goatherd), and Philoetius (a cowherd). When Odysseus is reunited with his father, Laertes, at the end of his journey, the old man is tending his vines, perhaps suggesting that he has a temenos (terrain set aside for a deity or king) similar to the one mentioned in connection with the king in texts from Pylos.
Another feature of The Odyssey that echoes the historical Mycenaean sources is the presence of servants, many of whom are enslaved. The nurse Eurycleia, who cared for Odysseus when he was a child, plays a key role. When the disguised Odysseus arrives at the palace, she bathes him in accordance with the rules of Greek hospitality.
She notices a distinctive scar that reveals Odysseus’ true identity but keeps the king’s secret. Other domestic slaves are mentioned, such as the women whom Telemachus puts to death for having had sexual relations with the suitors.
(Dionysus, Greek god of wine and revelry, was more than just a 'party god'.)
There are major differences between the king’s oikos, or residence, as described in The Odyssey and what is known about the how Mycenaean palaces were run. For example, Mycenaean palaces seem to have functioned as production hubs with artisans and slaves creating pottery, glassware, and metalwork from raw materials brought to the palace. For their work, they were paid in land and food rations. These kinds of workers are missing from theThe Odyssey.
As described by Homer, the Mycenaean people were organized into kingdoms. Odysseus was the son of Laertes and inherited the kingdom when he reached maturity. The description of the palace complex in Ithaca is corroborated by other Mycenaean texts. Kings did rule from their palaces. These impressive complexes serve not only as a residence for the royal family, guests, and servants, but also as an administrative center where income from the king’s lands and herds is traded or paid.
How Mycenaean kingdoms were governed and how they related to each other is not clear from history. Besides Homeric epics, other tales of the Trojan War describe a confederation of kingdoms that banded together against a common enemy. The origin of this alliance is traced back to Odysseus and the many suitors for the most beautiful women in the world. Powerful Mycenaean kings present themselves as husbands for Helen, and her father, King Tyndareus, fears that they will turn against Sparta if he does not choose them.
Clever Odysseus, after turning his attentions to Helen’s cousin Penelope, offers Tyndareus a solution if he promises Penelope to him (which he does). Odysseus tells the Spartan king that before betrothing Helen he must make all the suitors pledge an oath to come to Helen and her husband’s aid if she were ever abducted. They all agree, and in doing so, form the alliance that will fight against Troy when Paris, one of its princes, steals Helen from her husband, Menelaus. Other contemporary historical sources point to the existence of a Mycenaean confederation, which is referred to collectively as the kingdom of Ahhiyawa in circa 1400-1220 B.C. Hittite texts and Tanaja in 15th-century B.C. Egyptian sources.
The Odyssey has endured for centuries because it is a rollicking tale full of common human experiences, like the longing for home and family, coupled with fantastic monsters and villains. Its longevity has helped preserve it, not only as a good yarn, but also as a window into Mycenaean Greece and its kings of long ago.
Searching for Homer
